Abnormal hyperphosphorylation of tau in the cerebral cortex is seen in which of the following?
Exam Question Oct 2014
Prosopagnosia20%Capgras syndrome20%Parkinson's disease18%Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease21%Alzheimer's disease21%
Exam Question Oct 2014
Tau and tauopathies
Tau proteins are abundant in neurons and function to stabilise microtubules. Microtubules provide both a scaffold for the cell and a means of transporting substances around the cell. They are mainly found in the axon of a neuron and are absent in the dendrites. The tau protein is coded for by a gene on chromosome 17.
Hyperphosphorylation of tau leads to tau clumping together (these clumps are referred to as neurofibrillary tangles) and cells then disintegrate.
Major tauopathies include:-
- Alzheimer's
- Pick's (frontotemporal dementia)
- Progressive supranuclear palsy
- Cortiocobasal degeneration
